The Chinese government has indicated it will lift its H1N1-related bans on pork and pork products from three Canadian provinces, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday from Beijing.
Harper is travelling in China this week with Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and International Trade Minister Stockwell Day. The government said in a release that the new development on pork trade follows “many high-level interventions from Canadian experts and governmental officials.”
China said it would lift bans it imposed on pork and pork products from Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, but “regrettably” would continue to ban live swine imports, the three ministers said.
Read Also
U.S. livestock: Cattle futures down, hogs rise
Live and feeder cattle futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange showed small losses on Thursday, while lean hog futures made…
Ritz said in the same release that Ottawa “will continue to work with (Chinese officials) to get our safe and top-quality Canadian pork to the dinner tables in China as soon as possible.”
China is considered an “important” market for Canadian exporters and Chinese importers of pork and live hogs. Total Canadian pork exports to China were valued at $47 million in 2008, the government said.
Day said the new development “is important for our trading relationship with China and it shows that they have taken a first step towards recognizing international standards in relation to dealing with H1N1.”
“Risk assessment”
Specifically, the government noted in its release, the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) have stated that no additional trade restrictions should be imposed on pork that has passed veterinary inspection.
The agencies also concur that flu viruses do not affect the safety of properly cooked pork and influenza is not a food-borne disease.
According to a report Tuesday from China’s Xinhua news agency, Beijing’s move to lift bans on imports of pork products also applies to those from Mexico and from regions of the U.S., which had faced restrictions similar to those in the affected provinces.
The bans were lifted on the basis of “risk assessment,” Xinhua quoted China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine as saying.
The news agency said China’s various pork import bans were put in place as an “emergency response” to the appearance of H1N1 influenza in people in those three countries.
